Tuesday, August 31, 2010

SCMCo-op General Meeting Announcement

Following up on our last post, we have now scheduled a General Meeting for the South Cariboo Meat Co-op. We will meet at 7:00 pm in the Creekside Seniors Centre (just north of the hospital) in 100 Mile House on September 9, 2010.

The purpose of this meeting is to present details on our previously announced consideration of a two-phase development of our provincially licensed red-meat abattoir to serve the South Cariboo region. In addition, we are looking for input on the pros and cons of this development approach and welcome any and all questions from both our existing membership and all interested parties.

For any additional information on this meeting, or any aspect of our SCMCo-op, please contact Howie McMillan at either info@southcariboomeat.coop or 250-395-6775.

The Board of Directors
South Cariboo Meat Co-op

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

An update from the SCMCo-op

Since our last general meeting, we have been working to source construction/start-up funding for our abattoir. In addition, we continue to work on obtaining quotes to firm up the estimated costs of our project.

Our discussions with potential funders – primarily the Business Development Bank and Farm Credit Canada – have been fairly productive and we now have a better understanding of the required steps to finance our abattoir. Although a number of issues related to our application have been identified, only one of them poses a significant challenge to our obtaining the funding to proceed. Each potential funder has identified a requirement for a significantly higher level of up-front equity, to come either from additional non-repayable grants or membership fees.

With the firmer cost estimates for all components of our project now exceeding $1,600,000, we are therefore faced with an up-front equity threshold over $600,000. Given this expanded price tag, we are also looking at start-up debt levels of roughly $800,000. Needless to say, these numbers have generated some ‘angst’ amongst our Board members!

In response to this greater challenge, our Board has met a number of times recently to discuss how best to proceed. One of the suggestions we are examining closely is a two-phase development of our abattoir over a number of years. Under this plan, we would construct the slaughtering component of our project now and add the processing capacity at a suitable later date. We would obtain a Class B (slaughtering only) Provincial license, once our first phase was completed. When we proceeded with the second phase, we would convert this license to a Class A.

While no decision has been made on this alternate approach, at this time we are seriously examining the apparent advantages. Of course, the primary advantage would be a significantly lower capital cost and a corresponding reduction in the amount of up-front capital we would have to raise to begin construction. Another significant advantage of this approach is that it would still allow us to achieve our principal objective to have a provincially licensed abattoir in the South Cariboo, now tentatively operational by August of 2011.

Although we have not determined a reasonably accurate estimate of the total cost for the phase one component, we are confident it will be approximately 30-40% of the $1,600,000 cost of building the complete Class A facility. Once we have a firm estimate of the cost of this alternate approach, we will be updating our subscribing members.

As always, we encourage you to contact us with any questions you may have, or to discuss our project in greater detail. Please contact Howie McMillan at info@southcariboomeat.coop or 250-395-6775.

The Board of Directors

South Cariboo Meat Co-op

Thursday, April 8, 2010

SCMCo-op General Meeting - April 7, 2010

South Cariboo Meat Co-op General Meeting

Following up on our first AGM last month, we met again last night in an informal General Meeting format to further outline our Co-op project and field questions from both members and folks interested in our initiative. Roughly 30 people attended and an informative and constructive discussion helped flush out many details surrounding the formation and operation of our new abattoir here in the South Cariboo.

With the membership applications submitted last night, we now have over 50 members and are well on our way with our membership recruitment drive. Anyone interested in joining can download an application form from our website (see link in right hand column), or pick one up at either Findlay Meats or Higher Ground Natural Foods. Any questions or comments about Co-op membership, or any other aspect of our initiative, are most welcome and we encourage you to contact Howie at info@southcariboomeat.coop, or 250-395-6775. Alternately, any of our Board members listed in the previous posting would be happy to field your questions and suggestions about our project.

The Board of Directors
South Cariboo Meat Co-op

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Monday, March 29, 2010

Welcome to SCMCo-op’s News & Updates!

We will use this Blog to post information and updates on our South Cariboo Meat Co-op and the development of our new abattoir located in 100 Mile House. With this interactive communication tool we intend to keep both Co-op members and potential members informed of our progress and apprised of related agricultural news here in the South Cariboo region.

To that end, we wish to report on the success of our first AGM on March 4th. With over 40 people in attendance and a lively exchange of information and questions, we got our Co-op off to a great start. Part of the official business of the meeting saw the election of our first Board of Directors (see accompanying picture). Our new Board members are: Bill Hadden, Rod Hennecker, Gus Horn, Tina Johnson, Christine Jordaan, Lorne Landry, and Gail Morrison. Since then, our first Board meeting was highlighted by the election of the following Board executive, with Gus Horn as Board Chair, Lorne Landry as Vice-Chair, Gail Morrison as Treasurer, and Christine Jordaan as Secretary. We encourage everyone to support our new Board as it leads our Co-op forward in the development of a Class A, provincially licensed red-meat abattoir here in the South Cariboo.

With our membership recruitment drive now in full swing, we are hosting a General Meeting on April 7th in the Pioneer Room of the Creekside Senior’s Centre, starting at 7:00 pm. This meeting is open to everyone and we encourage you to come out with your questions and suggestions around the development of our abattoir. In the meantime, all questions and suggestions can be directed to either info@southcariboomeat.coop or 250-395-6775.

The Board of Directors
South Cariboo Meat Co-op